| Essay by J. R. R. Tolkien | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Essay |
| Published in | Essays Presented to Charles Williams |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | c. 60, depending on edition |
| Pub. date | 4 December 1947[1] |
| Chronology | |
| < > | |
| Leaf by Niggle Farmer Giles of Ham | |
"On Fairy-Stories" is a 1947 essay by J. R. R. Tolkien which discusses the fairy story as a literary form. It was written as a lecture entitled "Fairy Stories" for the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, on 8 March 1939.
The essay is significant because it contains Tolkien's explanation of his philosophy on fantasy, and his thoughts on mythopoeia and sub-creation or worldbuilding. Alongside his 1936 essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", it is his most influential scholarly work.
Several scholars have used "On Fairy-Stories" as a route to understanding Tolkien's own fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, complete with its sub-created world of Middle-earth. Clyde Northrup argues that in the essay, Tolkien argues that "fairy-story" must contain the four qualities of fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation. Derek Shank argues that while Tolkien objects to structuralism in the essay, Tolkien also proposes that a secondary world must have a structure with coherently related parts; but since it works by its effect on the reader, humans are inside the structure and cannot analyse it objectively.